Frank Thomas is in the Hall of Fame. Could David Ortiz be going, too?

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced its selections to the 2014 Hall of Fame class Wednesday, the culmination of months of speculation and debate over the voting process and appropriate role of Cooperstown.

Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas, each in his first year on the ballot, were selected to the Hall and will join managers Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre, who were chosen last month by the Veterans Committee. Craig Biggio just missed this year’s class, coming within two votes of the required 75 percent for selection, but there’s always next year.

The coming days will see a ton of complaining about Biggio and others not picked, especially Jack Morris, who lost support in his final year on the ballot, and Mike Piazza, who received 62.2 percent of the vote amid whispers of steroid use. You’re also sure to hear more continued grumbling about the sanctimony of voters who once again left off Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in protest of the performance-enhancing- drugs era. (And I’ll continue to make the case for Mike Mussina until he takes his rightful place in Cooperstown.)

Although those are all legitimate gripes, this is a day for celebration, for three deserving players receiving the highest honor in their field, for the greatness we were lucky enough to witness, and for the history their inductions represent.

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The Hall of Fame credentials of Maddux and Glavine are undeniable, and they already had one foot in the door by the time the announcement came down. The most significant of this year’s class, however, is the first-ballot selection of Thomas, who received 83.7 percent of the vote and will make history in July when he becomes the first Hall of Famer who spent the majority of his career as a designated hitter.

MLB.com summarizes the staggering statistics that ushered the Big Hurt into the Hall:

Thomas finished an illustrious career with a .301 average, 521 homers, 1,704 RBIs and 1,494 runs scored. He posted a .419 on-base percentage and a .555 slugging percentage, winning American League Most Valuable Player Awards in 1993 and ’94, Louisville Silver Slugger honors in ’91, ’93, ’94 and 2000 and taking home the ’97 batting title with a .347 average.

This 6-foot-5 slugger topped the .300 mark in 10 seasons and went .330 or higher four times. Thomas produced seven consecutive seasons of hitting .300 with at least 20 homers, 100 walks, 100 RBIs, 100 runs scored, a .400 on-base percentage and a .500 slugging percentage from 1991-97.

Thomas’ biggest achievement can’t be measured simply by numbers. His election officially legitimizes the role of the DH, which is often dismissed by baseball purists as a part-time position. It’s this thinking that has kept Edgar Martinez out of Cooperstown for this long despite the fact that he actually had better numbers than Thomas as a DH. Martinez set the standard for offensive production for a DH, but in five years on the ballot he hasn’t won over the voters who think his liability on the field outweighs his worth as a hitter.

This thinking is a relic of old-school baseball fans who yearn for the days before 1973, when the designated hitter was adopted by the American League, while the rest of us wait for them to evolve as the game has, however reluctantly. Wednesday’s announcement was a major step in that progression. The DH isn’t in danger of dying — there are even calls to implement it in the National League — and by finally choosing one to enter Cooperstown, the notoriously stuck-in-the-past BBWAA has seemingly concluded once and for all that the position holds value in today’s game.

If history is any indication, it also signals a shift in perception and practice for every future Hall of Fame ballot. In 1985, Hoyt Wilhelm became the first reliever inducted into Cooperstown, paving the way for Rollie Fingers’ election in 1992. More than a decade later, some voters still couldn’t bring themselves to embrace relief pitchers, but the Hall still welcomed Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter and Goose Gossage, whose perennial snubbing had made him the poster boy for the BBWAA’s resistance to the game’s evolution. In 2019, Mariano Rivera won’t just become a first-ballot Hall of Famer; he could very well be the first player unanimously elected to the Hall (though that now seems less likely given that 16 voters absurdly left Maddux off this year’s ballot).

Just as we saw with relief pitchers, the DH barrier is now broken, thanks to Thomas. That’s good news for Martinez, David Ortiz and any future player whose offensive production eclipses that of his peers and is ultimately far more important to his team than anything he could have contributed on the field. The manufactured distinction between “great hitter” and “great player” no longer has a place in an increasingly specialized baseball climate. The voters who influence a game so invested in its own history must adapt to that reality, and in honoring Thomas, it appears they’ve begun to find their way.